There are only two special occasions every year that our family make sure to serve home-made hot chocolate drink. That is every Noche Buena (on Christmas Eve) and Media Noche (on New Year’s Eve).

For us, it is like a Christmas tree, a parol, an exchange gift, a nativity scene. It is like hamon or queso de bola. When it starts to boil and you can smell it . . . ah! You know it is Christmas! Up to this day, ang tablea namin ay ginagawa pa ng tatay ko, galing sa puno namin ng kakao sa Batangas — binilad, sinangag, giniling at hinulma nya mismo!

So we might have pancit, ham, pasta or salad on our table, but goodness! There will always be hot chocolate! And it ain’t just another hot chocolate, it is Chocolate EH!

A couple of months ago, my mom, sister and tita came to visit us here again in Brunei and they brought along with them some tablea my father made for us. So for our Noche Buena this year, we had this rich chocolate drink along with traditional Pinoy Christmas fare like pancit guisado, puto, lumpia and more.

The photos I took of the Chocolate EH that night didn’t look presentable enough so, off went a jar of tableas to Mang Mike’s.

Here’s how it came out . . .

Rich Chocolate EH. The round tableas (sweetened) are from hubby Tune’s family in Batangas while the flat, oval tableas (unsweetened) are from my dad.